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Fenner Douglass. Cavaille-Coll and the French Romantic Tradition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. xiii,235 pp. ISBN 0-300-07114-0 (hardcover). "The Revolution," asserts Fenner Douglass, "left French organs in ruins. Had the Reign of Terror (1792-94) continued to the end of the 18th century, it is likely that -the art of organ building would have vanished from France altogether" (p. 1). With those ringing words Douglass begins his story of Aristide Cavaille-Coll (1811-99), whose career would rise from the ashes of the early nineteenth century, and who would go on to produce organs unlike any heard before. Though their superlative tonal beauty and finish would in themselves qualify Cavaille-Coll as one of the four or five greatest organ builders of all time, more significant still is the way in which his organs have inspired a still flourishing tradition of composition and performance. Franck, Widor, Vierne, Dupre, Durufle, and Messiaen responded to the rich sounds of Cavaille-Coll's instruments by producing a body of literature for organ surpassed only by that of the North German school of Buxtehude and Bach. In the present volume, Douglass examines the first three decades of Cavaille-Coll's long career in an attempt to show how so influential a figure could have arisen from so unpromising a cultural and historical background. Much of this, according to Douglass, was sheer luck, though that luck attached itself to a man of genius, perspicacity, and winsome personal qualities. In chapter 2 Douglass points out that Cavaille-Coll's rise to prominence corresponded fortuitously with the coming to France of rail travel, which permitted him to move quickly around the country, as demanded by his contracts for provincial cathedrals and churches. Increasing mechanization meant that the old craft of organ building, like the manufacture of pianos, had become an industry, and Cavaille-Coll took full advantage of these opportunities. Even so, fortune smiled upon him with unusually enduring warmth. It was Rossini who, after hearing an instrument built in Toulouse by Cavaille-Coll, urged the twenty-one-year-old to further his career in Paris. Within a few days of arriving in the capital, Cavaille-Coll had secured two major contracts (the organs for the royal abbey of Saint-Denis and Notre-Dame-de-la-Lorette) that together would establish his reputation and lead to a half-century of aesthetic and innovative triumph, if not financial security. There was also the decisive role played in his career by a fellow innovator from across the Channel. Rejected by his English colleagues who, according to Cavaille-Coll's friend, Charles Marie Philbert, "utterly scorned the work of a bold novice who dared interfere with the arcana of their routines" (p. 32), Charles Barker came to France with a new pneumatic lever designed to lighten the resistance of organ keys and thereby make possible the construction of larger, more elaborate instruments. The Barker lever was a godsend to Cavaille-Coll, who immediately used it to improve the flexibility and tonal range of his instruments. Such good fortune early in life enabled Cavaille-Coll to establish himself quickly, and the story of his professional debut and early career, on which Douglass focuses, is gratifying to read. In providing this account, Douglass draws almost exclusively on his massive Cavaille-Coll and the Musicians: A Documented Account of His First Thirty Years in Organ Building (Raleigh, N.C.: Sunbury Press, 1980), a two-volume work comprising a total of 1,534 pages and 29 plates. The relation between the two titles - or more accurately the extraction of the present book from the 1980 study - bears some clarification. In his preface, Douglass mentions the "first edition of Cavaille-Coll and the Musicians (1980)," which might lead readers to suppose that the present volume is a second edition or revision. On the copyright page, the publishers characterize the present volume as "a new and expanded edition of Cavaille-Coll and the Musicians. …

canadian university music review

Fenner Douglass. Cavaillé-Coll and the French Romantic Tradition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. xiii, 235 pp. ISBN 0-300-07114-0 (hardcover)